July 2019

Let the summer fun continue! 

my little amazing reader!

we have NOT been to the beach enough this summer. Hopefully the next 3 weeks will contain TONS of beach trips for my heart!

Heritage Days carnival!

parade

fried dough and oreos

and we're off to Kansas!

note: we were delayed in DIA for 8 hours! :(

Grammy and Granddad's new digs has a tree house!

the Jiffy Burger. We were tired. 

Granddad installed this fancy new handle to make it much easier to climb up and down

Reamsville church. Donna Garretson playing the piano.

Brent Garretson singing a lovely song.

Livi wanted to capture the beauty of Kansas to show Daddy :)

old school fun with Granddad

TWO diving boards! Olivia was fierce!

on to Colorado. This is our beloved Nadxieli's new landscaping that she did by herself!

out to dinner with Nadxieli, Abuela, Fernanda, Grandma and Paul. They couldn't speak the same language, but they had fun playing Gato. (tic tac toe :)

Finally made it to Grandma and Grandpa Smalberger's place!

more photos by Olivia ;)

on our way to Salida to play with Schurz cousins

Hannah, Livi and Asher had a great time together

making Grandpa's most delicious brownies in the world!

always creating

Scottie and family came up for a day!

More fun cousin time with Jaeslee

back home, our gorgeous yard. we are so lucky.

Jeff surprised me by painting the carriage house while we were in Colorado!

Cade moved into a new apartment and invited us over for dinner. Olivia fell in love with the parrot Pepper. 

here we are on our way to Canada. Except we aren't on our way because the car broke down. So we are having ice cream to help our sadness. 

and we made the most of it by going out to dinner in Skowhegan while our car was in the shop.

Olivia had a great time in the pool at the motel we stayed in.

gymnastics everywhere

while our car stayed in the US, we rented a car to get to Canada

We loved Quebec City! First we explored the hotel, which was about 20 minutes away from the old part of the city. We stayed at a very kid friendly hotel, and in hindsight I would have picked a more normal hotel because it was always packed and we didn't really partake in any of the activities other than the swimming pool, which was fun, but too deep to touch in. Oh well, lesson learned, and it was a good deal. After a quick swim we went downtown to a fantastic pizza restaurant that Jeff found. It was so cute, delicious, and our waiter was awesome. We had Olivia's bike in our rental car so she did a little ride after dinner. Then we went back to the hotel to watch tv and go to sleep.

The next day we ate breakfast at the buffet at our hotel, which Olivia loved. Then we rented bikes for Jeff and I and we went on a 7 mile ride around city. The city has great designated bike lanes and plenty of bike paths to explore, too. We were a little tired, but we all persevered. On our way back to the bike store we stopped at an awesome but crowded area of cobblestone streets and cafes galore. It was very touristy, but we had a great lunch and found a great souvenir snow globe for Livi.

We also explored the Frontenac Hotel and area around it before we hopped back on our bikes. I think Jeff and I could have spent more time sightseeing, but it was a good balance all in all. We ate poutine, macarons and learned that miel means honey in French and is a delicious dip for chicken tenders :) After our biking/exploring adventures we went back to the hotel to relax and swim. We were pretty tired again, and since we couldn't make a decision on where to eat, we just ate at the hotel. Sadly, the food was pretty blah, but it was defiintely convenient.

On our 2nd full day we found an awesome breakfast cafe that was totally a hidden gem. I don't think many tourists dined there and it was amazing! Then we headed to the old part of the city to check out the amazing waterfall before going across the river to an island where we went to a vineyard. They specialized in cassis, which is black currant. We tasted wines, sangria, jams, jellies, mustard and salad dressing. Then we ate lunch there and had ice cream. It was wonderful! We even brought home mustard, jam and wine, which are all already gone.

We went back to the hotel to relax again, then headed out to downtown, to another street filled with restaurants, lights, music and revelry. We had the greatest server for dinner. It was really cool to talk to French speakers who could also speak English.

On our final morning we went back to the amazing breakfast place before checking out the aquarium, which was on Olivia's wish list. The jellyfish were amazing!

We loved the Canadians we met and the countryside and towns we passed through. It was neat, tidy, friendly, welcoming and fun. A great getaway. It wasn't all perfect, of course. We were stressed about our broken down car. We were tired from our late evenings. There was some disappoinment when it felt like we were doing more things that some people liked than others (ahem, Olivia.) And our car is STILL broken, two weeks later. But we are so lucky to have been able to experience this trip, and enjoyed it so much we want to go back again!

back at home. more creations.

Grandma and Grandpa Smalberger are here!

checking out Kennebunkport

waterfront park

(more of the Smalberger grandparent visit next month ;)